Give a little

Glen Nieman of Estes Park gets comfortable while Cheryl McKenzie of Poudre Valley Hospital prepares to draw blood in the hospital's blood mobile on Monday. The blood mobile allows the blood drive to draw more efficiently.

Blood drive worker Christi Oldsen finds the vein on Monday. Phlebotomists study for a couple years so they can find the veins, or in this case, place the needle without the vein rolling out of the way, or pushing the needle all the way through the vein, which is painful and causes bruising.

Monday saw the return of the Poudre Valley Hospital`s Blood Mobile and the Red Cross Blood Drive at the Estes Park Medical Center.

The Red Cross schedules three blood drives a year in Estes Park, the last Mondays in September, January and April. This year, the January drive was cancelled due to weather. There was some concern, when snow started falling Sunday night, that it might happen again. Luckily, much of the snow melted off the streets long before the Blood Mobile headed to Estes Park.

The drive collected around 100 units by 2:30 Monday afternoon, about what was expected for the April drive.

As usual, volunteer bakers provided brownies and cookies for those who needed refueling after donating.

Andrea Dimmitt of Poudre Valley Hospital grabs a home-made brownie between donors on Monday. A hallmark of the blood drives in Estes Park are the home-made goodies the volunteers bake for the post-donation snack bar.

Here are some images from Monday`s Red Cross Blood Drive.

-- Walt Hester, Trail-Gazette

Advertisement

Nellie Mitchell of Poudre Valley Hospital fills in the information from the tiny machine before her. The UltraCrit machine reads blood samples to determine the percentage of red blood cells in a given donor's sample. Red blood cells carry oxygen, so that proportion, or hematocrit level is an indicator of how well ones body can carry oxygen.

Don Boling of Poudre Valley Hospital prepares donations for transport. Boling logs the numbers and secures the bags to make sure they don't leak on the way to Fort Collins.

A technician coaxes a blood sample from a reluctant finger during the drive. Some bleed at different rates than others and some donors need a little help getting the sample from the tiny finger stick.